A young boy started taking lessons with me recently. During our first lesson I asked him what kind of music he liked to listen to. "Rock mostly.", he said, "Especially classic rock." Without thinking I muttered, "That's about the only kind of rock there is anymore."
The prevailing theory is that there are no more rock bands, just new country that sounds like 1970's rock with the addition of steel guitars and banjos. But I've been thinking about this for a while now and I'm not sure that's being fair. Stylistically music constantly changes. It borrows from the past and blends various things together to create something new and yet still familiar. The "British Invasion" was a departure from the "Boys of Bandstand" and Metallica is a long way from the Beatles.
I'm sure there are new rock bands out there, but they're no longer main stream, just like Americana/roots, Bluegrass, or big band jazz. And there are more ways to hear music now. It used to be either live shows or radio. Now we have downloads, streaming, and YouTube. This increases the available variety and subverts the labels ability to concentrate our focus. Artistically it's a bit like the wild west out there. It's great for the consumer but a bit tough on the artists.
In related conversations and blogs I'm hearing about the demise of the guitar in popular music. Hip-hop and EDM are dominating the charts right now and they use a computer more than anything else, so I understand how that can be misunderstood. But the same kids who listen to that music listen to many other styles too (including classic rock).
I have a twelve year old girl who always wears cargo pants, tee shirts, and has purple hair. She wants to learn fingerstyle guitar so she can play music from video games. But she's also curious about playing pop music. The guitar is versatile enough (much like a piano) to play nearly anything and still has not lost its appeal to the common person. To paraphrase another saying, the news of its demise is premature.
It's kind of fun to be in the middle of all of this change as it swirls about me. I'm curious to see where it all leads and what it will become. But I'm fairly confident that "Rock 'n roll is here to stay" and the guitar, with its 3500 year history, isn't going anywhere either.
Oh, and the young boy who likes classic rock? His definition is music from the late 1980s to the 1990s. I didn't ask him his opinion of the 1960s. I'm not sure I want to hear it.